“Your aim is different from Peter SoSo’s. He’s focused on fulfilling the train line. Your own attention veers off to the right here, toward the forgotten waterfall. Aim Falls, we can call it. The Ickles, the two green beings in the collage — one at the bottom of the stairs with what appears to be Jiff (?) and the other to his right, directly below the falls — are aiding you. Yes, I’m getting it. Jiff is also an Ickle, but of a different species. Round head instead of cubic. Multiple expressions; five total. But color sticks… there must be 3 species: red, green, blue. Combined they form pitch perfect expression, a whiteness to douse the black away. Heaven over Earth. Man over woman even, perhaps.” He stops there.

“Well, there’s those little red people to the bottom right, Hucka,” Baker Bloch chipped in. “Right behind and around the wastebasket filled with Rocky’s discarded drafts for his second novel. Maybe they sprang out of the refuge.”

“If you mean the tender of the bar across the road, she appears to be gone. 4th citizen not here any more.”

“Missing again,” ponders Hucka Doobie. He scans the collage one last time. “Well, it’s pretty obvious. You must aim toward the falls, find out about the 3 Ickle species, and go from there. Jiff must be real again in this novel and have the ability to manifest. The green cubic hulks Rocky also writes about and then discards are obviously Ickle representations as well. He knows them and they know him. So: location location location. 3 of ’em. 3-n-1. ‘Nother one.”

… Peter SoSo was resting on a bench near End of the Line after a particularly difficult day of working on the Lapara train system: trying to smooth out some pesky car turns and pondering what to do with The Void, as everyone seemed to like calling the pitch dark link between the town’s upper and lower realms. He then fell sleep and dreamed that a second, somewhat smaller top hat appeared on top of his own, and then a fishbowl with two clownfish atop that.

He woke with a start, suddenly understanding how to fulfill the train system. It involved pitch perfect balance.

But the realization would take time. Luckily he was a patient mer-man.

For their 5th date, Nancy decides to take Danny to Collagesity, to dine at the exclusive Blue Feather Club. Bettie had told them of Baker Bloch’s open offer to come live here if they ever tire of Olde Lapara Towne. However, upon teleporting in, Danny becomes scared of what’s outside the window and tries to run away. He’s never seen an actual forest with real Linden trees before. They have to return to OLT.

—–

“Don’t you ever get tired of eating cake and dessert?” Nancy asks.

“No.”

Bettie and Buster sat, heads down, at another table in the Clownski establishment. Not praying, but just sharing an awkward moment. It was their first “date” in 771 years.

“We should eat the rosemary sprig that comes with our plates,” Buster then suggested. “Else we won’t get any vegetables tonight.”

Baker Bloch waited for Little Tonshi Ashokan (i.e., Bettie) to manifest in Collagesity, but it never happened. He wanted to reassure her, along with Nancy and perhaps even Danny — maybe Rocky especially — that they had a place in Collagesity if they wished. Wheeler Wilson and Buster Damm obviously could come back. Same with Peter SoSo for that matter. Tronesisia. They all could have a home here.

But for now, Baker has decided he must join them in Olde Lapara Towne instead of visa versa. Create a more rational perspective on what’s going on there. He was especially disappointed that Wheeler hadn’t returned, admittedly. She’s part of the core family, he thinks to himself tonight. She belongs here.

But how about Duncan and The Musician and maybe others still roaming around the VHC City environs?

Who is really a native of what town, or is it all just transient and interchangeable? Karoz Blogger and Baker Blinker, for example, seem to remain in Chilbo, yet another berg directly linked to Collagesity. An older relationship, like VHC City I suppose. Olde Lapara Towne is a new coupling. And OLT remains the most important for at least the current work (“Collagesity 2017 Later”, or “Novel V”).

Baker waits a little more. Then enters.

I forgot to even mention Mary. Truth is, I think Baker Bloch has changed over the course of 2017, and may be as much vampire Pitch Darkly as his old self.

Osborne Well still reads “Floydodo” on the second floor of Darkly Manor, the one with the view into the forest. Fellow established Collagesity resident Woody Woodmanson joins him for a glass of milk. “He’ll come around soon enough,” the wooden man reassures his other vampire friend. “He’ll know who he really is.”